What do you do when you’ve got too many Anzac cookies and some people to impress?
Welcome to ready steady cook at ours.
We’ve got a pretty impromptu dinner with the married ones and some dear friends who’ve returned from London. The quality of the wine they bring is always mythical and their palates are pretty discerning.
No pressure, ok?
It’s everyone bring a course. We opt for main, because it’s at ours. I’ve got an idea tinkering in my head. It’s either going to work or its not.
Hopefully by the time we’ve made it through the Stonier Reserve 2003 pinot, Lakes Folly 1998 and a 1996 Rouge Homme Cab Sauv they brought we won’t really notice.
Actually- it ended up being pretty good.
But not as good as the choc ginger truffles that Mrs Married made, when washed down with a Dindima muscat from Orange.
Now this is what fridays should always be.
Anzac night pasta
Roast pumpkin cannelloni with sage butter and Anzac crumbs.
Cut a butternut pumpkin up into wine cork size cubes. Toss in olive oil, sea salt and add some cloves of garlic and some sage leaves. Roast for about an hour and a half on 180 degrees until slightly caramellised.
Make a bechamel ( I use chickpea flour for my roux because I like the nutty taste, but plain flour is fine). Little tip- heating milk in an espresso steamer so it’s hot when you add it to the roux speeds up the process.
Add two tablespoons of marscapone and half a grated nugget of nutmeg, some salt and some pepper to the bechamel.
When the pumpkin is roasted mash it up and add some slivers of prune to the mix.
Take some fresh lasagne sheets (dried ones won’t work…).
Add a tablespooon of the pumpkin/prune mix to the middle and roll it up like a log.
Lay them in your lasagne tray, until they’re all nestled like kids at a slumber party in sleeping bags.
Pour the marscapone/ bechamel over the top. It needs to cover all of the cannellonis.
Shave some parmesan ove the top, cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Take the foil off and bake for another 10 to colour the top.
Turn the oven off. Make a green salad with some shaved fennel.
Take five of the Anzac biscuits that you overcooked a little so they’re crunchy. Smush them up until they’re crumbs. Put them in a bowl in the middle of the table.
Make a sage butter sauce by taking a lump of unsalted butter (about 150 grams) and heating it until it’s nut brown. Add a handful of sage leaves and fry until they’re crispy.
Serve the cannelloni with sage butter drizzled over the top and a handful of Anzac crumbs and the green salad.
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To find the grave of my grandfather at Hill 60 at Gallipoli was the object of a weekend visit from Istanbul.We had booked through a tour operator there but a few days from departure from Sydney,I contacted them top confirm they would take us to Hill 60 and they said they do not go to that part of the peninsular on their tours.I cancelled right away and, luckily,in that weekend's newspaper's travel section was a letter from a person who had booked with directly in Istanbul so I emailed them and was told http://www.privatetoursinistanbul.com they could take us to Hill 60 at no extra cost.A coffee break half way after 2 1/2 hours allowed us to stretch our legs. On the final part of the 5 hour journey,a tape was played outlining the history of the Dardenelles-Gallipoli campaign in 1915. Upon arrival at the Maydos waterside restaurant we were given lunch on the terrace wirth a wonderful view across the Dardenelles then we were off to the Brighton Beach site (one beach south of Anzac Cove and we were shown large maps of the area nd our guide explained the topography and battles shown on the map and the sites we would be visiting that afternoon.After the rather complete and highly interesting afternoon tour which included a visit to the local museum, we were taken back to restaurant and boarded a cruiser for the short crossing of the Dardenelles to Cannakale.. This in itself was a bonus as one could view the Gallipoli peninsular and grasp the view which eluded so many in rthe 1915 campaign when only a few Australian soldiers reached the peaks and saw the Dardenelles which we were now crossing,only to be beaten back by the Turks under the leadership of Attaturk later reforming President of Turkey.Included in the tour was a Sunday morning tour of Troy- that most elusive and explored city which Homer wrote about some 1200 years BC with Helen, the beauty being kidnapped by Paris and the resulting Trojan War which saw Troy VI destroyed only to be rebuilt at least 5 more times! There is a wooden horse there now but the original is said to have been a seige engine. driver and a guide to go north to Hill 60 to find my grandfather's grave. Through some wheat fields and onto a low knoll and here we were- the first persons to ever visit his grave, front row extreme right hand end.Only 44 graves, some 930 all buried in common grave, the action was made up of left-overs from various regiments,Aussies,New Zealanders ,British in this, the last main battle of the campaign.They were all wiped out in 2 days. An Australian flag, some gum leaves and a red poppy we left on the grave stone- it is a lonely place,sad and gut wrenching when one sees the absolute wastage in human lives-Back to Istanbul on the coach with memories and a feeling that we had, at least fulfilled one of life's ambitions!